Plastic-bag bans gain ground across state

Loved by some, hated by others and long a symbol of consumerism and convenience, the plastic bag has spent years at the center of a controversy pitting environmental groups against lawmakers, limited-government advocates and plastic manufacturers.

The debate over the fate of the single-use plastic bag has raged from the beach cities to inland suburbs, city council chambers to the halls of the Legislature in Sacramento.

But with more cities across California – most recently Los Angeles – signing off on bans, the plastic bag may soon be history.

More than 70 municipal agencies across the state have approved bans. With the new law, Los Angeles became the largest city in the country to have such a rule.

Could more cities be next?

"Absolutely," said Mark Murray, executive director of the environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste, adding that by the end of 2014, about 30 percent of Californians will live under a bag ban. "I think there is tremendous interest. Anyone near an open space or solid-waste landfill can see how plastic bags accumulate. These bags blow out of garbage cans, garbage trucks and off the face of landfills."

Ben Ramos, a 54-year-old Huntington Beach resident shopping at a Ralphs on Golden West Street on a recent morning, said he liked the convenience of plastic sacks and reuses them around his home often. Still, he supports bag bans to help the environment.

"It's good down the road," Ramos said. "I don't like seeing plastic bags all over the street."

But bag-ban opponents argue plastic sacks aren't as dangerous as claims made by environmental groups about sea life destruction, ocean pollution and clean-up costs suggest. They say banning plastic bags is more about crafting an eco-friendly image to woo voters than about good public policy.

"It's based on no real fact," said Don Williams, a San Jose resident and founder of Stop the Bag Ban, a citizens group. "They're not really trying to solve the problem. They're trying to control the behavior of people."

Further, the bags are becoming recycled in increasing higher percentages, ban opponents say. About 11 percent of plastic bags in the U.S. in 2011 were recycled – up from 6.1 percent in 2009, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Opponents also argue that imposing bans would kill jobs tied to plastic-bag manufacturing and place a burden on consumers who have to either pay a fee – often 10 cents – to use paper alternatives, or buy reusable sacks.

In Sacramento, there have been at least eight attempts in the years-long effort to pass a statewide ban on single-use bags. A bill authored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, failed to clear the Senate in May, falling three votes short.

Another bill, authored by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, would prohibit a store with more than $2 million in annual sales or retailers with more than 10,000 square feet of floor space that also have a pharmacy from providing a single-use plastic bag to a customer. The bill is expected to be considered in January.

"Right now, it's a patchwork quilt of bag bans," Levine said. "We want to create a level playing field so that big and small businesses know what the law is from town to town."

First developed in Sweden in the 1960s, the plastic bag was marketed as a cheap alternative to paper counterparts. It caught on quickly with American consumers. With an estimated 100 billion bags being handed out each year, plastic-bag manufacturing is a multibillion-dollar industry. And political pressure to support or oppose bans can be strong.

Hilex Poly, a South Carolina corporation that manufacturers many of the plastic bags given to consumers at check stands in California, and the American Chemistry Council, a plastics industry trade association, have donated several thousand dollars to political campaigns for Senate members who voted against Padilla's bill. Both groups have contributed to campaigns for state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.

"They are especially important for working-class families that are trying to save pennies here and to survive on a day-to-day basis," Correa said of plastic bags. "That's where disposable bags come in handy. To me, it's an economic issue more than an environmental one. These bags provide multiple purposes at a very affordable price."

Locally, environmental groups such as the Surfrider Foundation, Californians Against Waste and Heal the Bay put pressure on city councils to pass bans, packing city halls during key votes and organizing grass-roots campaigns.

A city eyeing a bag ban is Fountain Valley, where a pair of young activists asked the City Council in May to consider such a rule. Christine Mulholland and Stephanie Hill, 2005 graduates of Fountain Valley High School, started the nonprofit Generation Awakening to accomplish 10 of the more pressing issues of their generation.

Los Angeles' bag ban, along with bans in Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach, will push others to ban the bag, including Fountain Valley – or so Mulholland thinks.

"It's kind of like a domino effect," Mulholland said. "Once everyone around you starts doing something, you start looking around and thinking we should do this too."

Several of Orange County's 34 cities have bans on plastic bags.

Laguna Beach: On Jan. 1, Laguna Beach became the county's first city with a plastic-bag ban.

Dana Point: Ban started April 1 and prohibits distribution of single-use plastic bags at retail businesses.

Huntington Beach: Its ban starts Nov. 1 and prohibits distribution of single-use plastic bags within city limits. There will be a 10-cent charge for each paper bag issued.

San Clemente: In May, the City Council rejected a request by the San Clemente Coastal Advisory Committee to ban plastic bags, 3-2.

Newport Beach: A proposal to ban plastic bags was voted down by the City Council in 2011.

Irvine: After city staffers were directed to study a potential plastic-bag ban in August, the issue has been tabled, Councilman Jeffrey Lalloway said.